Tips to Better marketing in 2017

Can you believe it? It is actually 2017. Three years off the big futuristic 2020. While you are recovering from the Christmas period ( /eating your body weight in cheese boards and leftover dinners) we thought we would give you some top tips on how to market your business in 2017. Is marketing in 2017 that different to 2016 I hear you say… Well, yes, slightly. This year we can use what we learnt in 2016 with our predictions and knowledge of what 2017 will bring to create the best marketing strategy yet. So, stop what you are doing and read these tips on how to start 2017 with a bang.

Mobile Optimisation

The number of people that check websites, marketing material, and social media on their phone is enormous and ever growing. I exclusively use Facebook on my phone, very rarely logging in on my laptop. Therefore, any digital marketing material needs to be accessible and look good and professional on mobile devices. However, this is only going to increase in importance in 2017. But how? Well, the number of Americans sporting wearable mobile devices (e.g. smartwatches) is projected to increase by around 60% this year. This means that you need to produce content with this in mind and create specific content for this precise audience. This content needs to be great, look great and work great! There is a crazy statistic about how most users won’t wait any longer than 10 seconds for a page to load. If you make your mobile page slow, then you are seriously reducing your audience. The key message from this is that your content needs to be accessible on as many devices as possible and mobile does not just mean smartphone. So, get adapting!

2. Company Transparency

There has never been a time where this message resonates so strongly. With the freedom of the internet and privacy now being a novelty, companies now have to adapt to this. Competition is no longer restricted to your local area it is worldwide making it a much harder and more competitive market to work on. Working on this global market means that specific good business traits are key, transparency being one of them. Transparency (okay, maybe not complete transparency) will increase your customers trust in you and make you seem more like a person than a service. If you are open with your customers and honest when you have problems, then they are much more likely to be empathetic and become a reoccurring customer. However, if you lie, even if it is to cushion the truth of why you can’t deliver their expectations, then when they eventually realise the truth the relationship based on trust will be broken. This will make your customers a lot less likely to become a loyal customer and go to your other competitors. Every company experiences issues but transparency with your customers makes a huge difference. Marketing wise, you can market happiness guarantees as a unique selling point with the promise of discount or free services if the customer is not completely happy. Companies can also be transparent through social media marketing, giving customers and followers an insight into the companies work life allowing them to understand the inner workings of the company. The more your relationship with your customer becomes personal not just functional, the more your customer feels invested into your company and is less likely to change allegiances and use your competitors. 2017 will just increase this need.

3. Increase Email Marketing Budget

This may seem like an odd one. Email marketing has been around for ages, surely it is dying out? Well, no. How many times a day do you check your email whether it is for the latest ASOS sale or a reply from your IT support company about your printer breaking? Well whether it is 5 or 50 times a day, email marketing makes a difference to your life. Although email service providers are cracking down on spam and therefore the amount of emails getting to people’s inbox, email marketing is still a crucial marketing tool profits wise. The return of investment on email marketing is still the highest out of all marketing strategies- around £38 to every £1 spent. There are loads of handy tips, such as not using more than one call to action in an email campaign, which will increase your ROI (return on investment) once you have invested into email marketing. However, the key point is that email marketing should still be a priority. Creating short, concise, well-written emails will have a massive effect on your business. So, really if you are not investing in email marketing you are not making the maximum ROI.

4. Content is King but Appearance is Queen

You have heard it all before, content is king, without good content, you will not get readers etc. But if content is king, appearance is queen. How many times have you clicked on a website, realised it looked like a five-year-old made it and clicked off. Regardless of the standard of the content, I will not read a web page if I know that within a minute my eyes will start to blur at the rubbishy font, lack of spacing and no images or interactive content. Infographics are the new how-to blogs with better reader and click through rates. If you make the most incredible blog full of unique content that will undoubtedly provide so much value to your readers, make sure you break the text up into consumable chunks and put it on an appealing, well-designed website. The number of bloggers and help pages is only going to increase in 2017 so make sure your website is appealing to all your target audiences.

5. Videos are Winners

Following on from above is the idea that content is king if presented in the right way. Videos have revolutionised the way we learn, especially short, snappy informative ones. Perhaps the most watched videos on Facebook are the Tasty videos which show people how to cook delicious recipes in 30-second videos. These videos are the perfect marketing tool as they go viral in minutes. Creating videos in a similar template would help most businesses expand their audience and increase popularity. Animoto stated that 4X more people would much prefer to watch a video about a product than read about it. This means that if you placed the same information into a video, you could potentially get around 4 times more viewers- just like that. Creating webinars is also included in the winner section. They are a great way to provide a valuable tool to your audience, one that doesn’t involve hosting an event and providing snacks! This emergence of video popularity is only going to increase in 2017, so get reading, find a decent recording device and get creating.

6. SEO is Still Crucial

Maybe one day, when Google aren’t the leaders of the search engine world, SEO will be less important. However, looking at 2017, it does not look like we can start slacking on search engine optimisation. We need to continue to focus on the way we can up the ranks on our specific keywords, whilst constantly being adaptable to Google’s new algorithms. By finding small tricks and working really hard it is possible to get to the top of the list even on some of the most popular keywords. SEO is so important in driving more repeat visitors as the more they see you in their search results, the more you will become a company they recognise and trust. Pay per click is dependent on budget, organic search will always be based on hard work.

That’s it. Our initial tips for 2017. Nothing too revolutionary but important in seeking which trends are worth investing in. It is always important as a marketer to try new things but also to keep with the old worthwhile tricks and techniques which we know bring results. What are your predictions for 2017 or do you have your own New Year’s marketing resolution? Watch this space as there will undoubtedly be more marketing tips to follow.